Optimization of Bus Body Structure Using OptiStruct

Harmeek Singh
Engineer, R&D
Swaraj Mazda Ltd.
Village Asron, Ropar,
Distt Nawanshahar-144 533, Punjab (India)
erharmeeksingh@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Established in 1983, the Swaraj Mazda Ltd is presently manufacturing vehicles for goods
and passenger applications. Over the years it has built up a wide product portfolio covering regular
as well as niche segment needs. Swaraj Mazda Vehicle population today stands at over 115000.
The Swaraj Mazda Bus Body plant is set up by the Sumitomo Corporation, Japan to
manufacture the Luxury Buses powered by the Isuzu Engine.
The Bus is designed for the Indian Transportation Industry focused on the Serviceability
and Crashworthiness. This 39 Seater bus has the Gross Vehicle Weight as 11.9T having wheelbase
5400mm, overall length 1.2mtr and is powered by powerful ISUZU Euro IV Engine.

Sustainable profit-making through customer satisfaction in the form of better product and
service remain the main concerns of any manufacturing Industry. Increasing market competition
and demand of Quality Product has narrowed the margins of the manufacturers.
Topology and Topography refinements in the design maintaining the level of
Crashworthiness and meeting all the design standards can help in producing an ideal product.
Efforts have been made using the FEA with Hypermesh for Pre-Processing, Optistruct as Solver
and HyperView for Post-Processing to study the Material and Geometric requirements in the Bus
Body Structure & Chassis Frame based on the Boundary Conditions.

A significant amount of material was saved using small Geometric changes and by reducing
the thickness of the sections, maintaining the same strength and clearing all safety standards of the
vehicle.

BACKGROUND
High Performance, Better Quality and Passenger Safety Standards in the CV Industry have
made the job of the designer tough, Market Competition and Increasing Cost of raw material has
further made it tougher. Designing the Tubular Structure of the Bus with appropriate available
sections and thicknesses at the correct location in the structure to handle the forces and moments
within the Stress Range becomes a challenge for the team.

Different methods of Optimization (i.e. Shape Optimization and Size Optimization) are
used to reduce the overall mass of the structure maintaining the same level of crashworthiness in

Simulation Driven Innovation 1

the shell. It is very difficult to identify the concerned members in a cage of approx 500 tubes to
remove, to relocate, to change the section or to reduce the thickness manually with very less scope
of error. The physical testing of the bus is seen rarely as the time and huge amount of cost is
involved along this, the time of development cycle is increased which causes delays.

So, the need of such kind of tool that optimizes our product at the Concept Level itself.

PRE-PROCESSING

The FE-Modeling is done in the HyperMesh on the Middle Surface of the Tubular Sections
using various Elements maintaining the basic Quality Checks of the Model. The model is made
free from Penetrations and Interferences. The normals and Free Edges are also checked.
Glasses, Doors and other components have been considered as the lump loads and are modeled
using the RBE2 and Mass Elements. The bolts are modeled with multiple RBE2 elements with 2
layer washers.

Elements used in Modeling:

1. Shell Elements (Quad & Tria Elements) for the Tubular Geometry
organized in 75 Component Collectors.
2. RBE2 Elements for depicting the Welding between the Tubes.
3. Mass Elements for the Concentrated Loads in the Bus.

Material & Properties is assigned to the model using the cards defined in the Software. The
Overall Weight and Center of Gravity of the FE-Model is brought in consonance with the CAD
Modal to correctly define the Model.
The model is constrained using SPC elements at the appropriate locations and the model is set
for analyzing the Structure for Bending in the Static Load Conditions.

Simulation Driven Innovation 2

OPTIMIZATION

Size and Shape Optimization are the methods where Variables can be assigned to
perturbation vectors, which control the shape of the model. Variables can also be assigned to
properties, which control the thickness, area, moments of inertia, stiffness, and non-structural mass
of elements in the model.
In size optimization, the properties of structural elements such as shell thickness, beam
cross-sectional properties, spring stiffness, and mass are modified to solve the optimization
problem.
In shape optimization, the outer boundary of the structure is modified to solve the
optimization problem. Using finite element models, the shape is defined by the grid point locations.
Hence, shape modifications change those locations.
The model was setup for the Shape Optimization (with 3 variants of sections
20X30X2mm, 20X40X2mm, 30X30X2mm) using the load-case for Bending by constraining the
Maximum Stress and minimizing the Mass of the Structure with Shapes as the variables. The
analysis was run using Optistruct as the Solver.
The next setup for Size Optimization was run by freezing the sections by the output from
the last solution. In this the variable was the Thickness (1.2mm lower bound and 2.0mm as upper
bound) with stress as the constraint and again minimizing the mass of the structure and the Solution
was run using the Optistruct as the Solver with the same load-case.

Simulation Driven Innovation 3

RESULTS
Post-Processing was done using the HyperView and the results were obtained were as:

STRESS PLOTS

Original Model Structure Weight: 1390Kg

Optimized Mode Structure Weight: 1315Kg

Simulation Driven Innovation 4

 DISPLACEMENT PLOTS

Original Model Structure Weight: 1390Kg

Optimized Mode Structure Weight: 1315Kg

Simulation Driven Innovation 5

 ORIGINAL MODEL OPTIMIZED MODEL DIFFERENCE
MASS 1390 Kg 1315 Kg -5.4%
STRESS
325 MPa 321 MPa 1.2%
(Von-Mises)
DISPLACEMENT
31.6mm 31.9mm 0.1%

The overall weight of the Structure is reduced by 5.4% by making the following alterations:

1. The Cross Sections of the certain key members is to be reduced to (40mmX20mm) from
(40mmX40mm).

2. The thickness of some members in the Floor and Roof Area is reduced to 1.6mm from
2mm.

CONCLUSION

The optimization of the design was carried out using the Shape and Size optimization with Section
Shape and Thickness as variables and with the objective to minimize the mass. The Optimization
tool, Optistruct has proved to be useful tool in Optimizing the Complex Tubular Bus Structure with
reduction in Stresses. The Optistruct has also given the freedom to alter the cross section,
thickness, their Locations and orientations of the members used in the Bus Structure and validate
the results.

NEXT STEPS….

The Structure will be further verified based on the load-case for Rollover Analysis of the Bus
Structure, which can reduce some more weight and confirms the Crashworthiness of the structure.

Simulation Driven Innovation 6